"To be honest, I really don't want to sell it." Reluctance colored Ted's voice. "After my family went bankrupt, I put the last of my money into the arms industry, hoping to make a comeback. I never thought... ah."
An exceedingly complicated expression crossed his face, mingling nostalgia for the past with helplessness over the present.
Trying to play on my sympathies with a sob story so I won't drive down the price...
Lorne shook his head slightly but did not call him out. Come to think of it, the father he had inherited had been in much the same situation. After going bankrupt, he too had been obsessed with making a comeback. You two really are rather alike.
"I... I'm willing to sell my entire remaining stake." Ted raised his head, his voice catching almost imperceptibly.
"Lorne has twenty percent, so you still have eighty?"
"Yes."
"And the price?"
"The price... let's go back to the office first. It'll be easier with pen and paper there." Rather than answering directly, Ted made a suggestion.
Back at the entrance to the office building, Lorne turned to Old Kohler beside him. "Old Kohler, wait here for a bit."
"Of course." Old Kohler nodded repeatedly. He knew they were about to discuss serious business. An outsider like him would only get in the way.
Once inside the office, Lorne pulled out a chair without ceremony and sat down, meeting the eyes of the visibly nervous Ted behind the desk.
"By my calculations," Ted began, forcing himself to remain composed, "our factory buildings and equipment are worth a little over eleven thousand
pounds, so an eighty-percent stake would be 8,800 pounds. There's also the ammunition in the warehouse, worth around 1,000 pounds."
*With miscellaneous expenses, taking over this factory would cost more than